The Swap
by MeridianGrimm
Summary: After a sleepover on a weeknight, Miyuki and Sawamura show up to morning practice wearing the wrong jerseys.


Disclaimer: I don't own Daiya no Ace.

This is based on a post by tumblr user official-todoroki-shouto (previously demiromantic-katsuki), which I have permission to use:

"The team becomes painfully aware of the nature of Miyuki and Sawamura's relationship when they show up to practice wearing the other's jersey."

* * *

"_Five times_, Eijun? You hit the snooze button _five times_?" Miyuki struggles to pull on pants while Sawamura wiggles into a compression shirt next to him. His hat is around here somewhere, probably under the pile of discarded clothes from last night. They're going to have to skip breakfast at the dining hall today.

"My alarm goes off earlier than yours, okay? I make it to practice just fine my way! And _don't_ bring up my first practice, 'cuz you were late that day too!"

"Shit, Eijun, five times is unnecessary. No wonder Kuramochi wants to kill you, if you're waking him up that early every morning." Rummaging through their mess of clothing, Miyuki extracts one baseball cap and practice jersey. Sawamura grabs the other jersey from the floor and new socks from his overnight bag. Miyuki throws the two pairs of cleats into their respective baseball bags and shoves on sneakers for the run to the practice field.

"Why didn't _you_ sleep on the right side of the bed, then?"

Miyuki leers. "Who was the one who collapsed there when we were finished, huh?"

"How was I supposed to know what time your alarm went off? We usually do this on weekends!" It's true. One of Miyuki's roommates never showed up at the beginning of the school year, and the other lives close enough that he goes home some weekends – something about lots of younger siblings – so Miyuki is fortunate enough to have a room to himself from Friday afternoon to Sunday night, during which time Sawamura often comes over. Miyuki's one roommate, a third year, was travelling for some college interviews this week, so he and Sawamura had decided to take advantage of the extra time.

At the moment, though, they are out of time, and if they're lucky, Coach will just make them run laps. Sawamura yanks open Miyuki's door, shifting anxiously in the doorframe as the catcher finishes getting dressed.

"This conversation isn't over," Miyuki finally replies. "_Five times_, Eijun." He grabs a handful of granola bars from his stash and locks the door behind them. "Here, take one." Their speed walk transforms into a frantic run once the granola bars are finished. Miyuki tugs on Sawamura's sleeve to slow down once they get in sight of the field.

"I don't have any bite marks visible, do I?" He hadn't brushed his teeth this morning, so he'd forgotten to check the bathroom mirror.

Sawamura laughs. "What're you gonna do _now_ if there are? And you say I'm dumb." He playfully punches Miyuki on the shoulder, and the catcher takes that as a no. Amazingly, Sawamura has managed to be incredibly discreet about their relationship. They haven't told the team that they're going out, but they also haven't ever specifically told the team that they're _not_ going out, so Miyuki doesn't really count it as deception. If anyone directly asked, Miyuki would have no problem talking about it. And if Sawamura was present too, he'd tease the hell out of his boyfriend while he explained to the rest of them just how _cute_ Sawamura could be.

Sawamura would yell at him for it, but then Miyuki might get an angry makeout session later, which was always a blast.

From where they are now, Miyuki can tell that Coach isn't here. He must have a faculty meeting or something this morning, which means Tetsu's in charge of practice. However, the captain's not going to go easy on them. "Next time I'm sleeping next to the alarm clock," Miyuki mutters, but Sawamura has sped up to a light jog again, so he's not around to hear it.

Sawamura reaches the dugout before him and the rest of the team finally notices them. The pitcher launches into a grand apology for being late, full of antiquated language and exclamations, as per usual.

"I was running a little late too," Miyuki says when Sawamura pauses for breath. "Sorry, Tetsu."

"Go stretch. We're doing batting practice now, but you'll both be doing extra conditioning after school."

"Yes, Leader!" Sawamura hollers. Miyuki rolls his eyes at Sawamura and follows suit. He avoids looking at his boyfriend while they stretch because Miyuki doesn't need any reminders of how flexible Sawamura is. Not here, not now.

Sawamura jumps up impatiently after a few minutes, undoubtedly eager to start batting. Miyuki waves him on with a faux innocent grin. "Oh, go ahead. You need all the practice you can get."

"Wanna say that again? I don't need your permission, you villain!" The team ignores this outburst but Sawamura jogs over to join them, blabbing at his usual volume, and eventually draws attention just by being himself.

Miyuki grabs a bat after stretching and moves next to Kawakami and some of the second string players in line for one of the machines. He starts to say something about the weather, but the whole group is staring at him. The air – previously filled with lighthearted small talk – is suddenly weird. Someone lets out a snicker. "Something funny?" he asks cautiously.

Kawakami turns slightly pink in the face, but he shakes his head quickly, scratching his cheek and trying to hide a smile. "Uh-uh, nothing." There are similar murmurs of agreement around him, but a couple people cough to hide sniggers. Miyuki frowns and looks around. It's not just this group; Miyuki sees nudging and surreptitious chuckling and whispered conversations among the other players too. The only normal sounds on the field are the pop of the pitching machines and the ping of metal bats on the balls.

Did Sawamura lie about him not having a hickey? No one's staring at his neck, though.

"Are you sure?"

"There's nothing going on," Kawakami states, but his growing blush gives away that there is, in fact, something going on.

* * *

It continues like this – with quiet tittering as if there's a private joke that the whole team's in on – for the first half-hour, when Miyuki finally caves from frustration and paranoia. "What's the deal with everyone today?" he asks Kuramochi when they finish the drill and start to move equipment around.

"Whaddya talking about?" the shortstop replies, but he's grinning like a cat that's spotted a cream-covered canary, just waiting to pounce in a moment of weakness.

Even Chris-sempai is struggling to keep his lips pursed neutrally when Miyuki comes over to talk about the pitch selection for the upcoming scrimmage, a smile sneaking onto his face anyway against his will.

"Will _you_ tell me what's so funny?"

Chris-sempai shakes his head with strained solemnity, but his eyes flick to the field briefly and Miyuki's head snaps around to follow his gaze. Sawamura is gesturing wildly to Furuya, probably getting worked up again about something stupid, and Miyuki finally focuses on the number pinned to Sawamura's back:

_#2_

Oh_. Oh_.

Miyuki's sure that his face has never flushed so fast. Suddenly he feels the urge to pour a bucket of ice water over his head, or maybe see if the swim club has opened the pool yet. If Sawamura is wearing #2, then Miyuki is wearing #20, and the two of them arrived conspicuously late together. To anyone with a pair of eyes and a brain, the conclusion is obvious.

"Whoa, finally figured it out, huh?" Kuramochi's grin spreads even wider, if possible, as he joins them in the dugout to grab a water bottle. "I didn't even think you _could_ blush like that. Look at that shade of red, Masuko-sempai."

"Hmm." Masuko's looking a little red himself from second-hand embarrassment and he turns away to dig through his bag.

"I woulda bet good money that Sawamura couldn't keep a secret to save his life. Masuko-sempai and I were sure he'd been sleeping over with a girl instead of crashing with friends or something 'cause he was so damn proud when he told us not to wait up for him. We figured since he didn't say who the girl was, she wasn't someone we knew. What did you do to keep him quiet, huh?"

Miyuki raises his eyebrows and his smile turns just a little bit devious, embarrassment gone. "You wanna know?"

"Actually, I've changed my mind," Kuramochi replies. "_Hell_ no. I don't need to think about what you and Sawamura do for fun outside of baseball." He shudders. "As long as it doesn't mess either of you up for a game, I don't care."

"Good." Miyuki hadn't been planning on stopping even if teammates objected.

Kuramochi takes a long drink from his bottle and nods at Sawamura, who's left off yelling at Furuya to start picking up baseballs. "Sawamoron hasn't realized yet, has he?"

"Nope." Then a wicked gleam sneaks into Miyuki's eyes. "And we're not going to tell him."

"What a bastard."

Miyuki laughs off the insult. "Sawamura knew what he was getting into," he replies, and leaves it at that. The catcher rejoins the team in practice after finishing his strategy discussion with Chris.

When Tetsu has the pitchers break off to warm up in the bullpen, Miyuki slyly throws an arm over Sawamura's shoulder like he always does and tells the pitcher not to mess up too much. Sawamura retorts as explosively as normal to the usual insult – "I'll show you just how great a pitcher I am! Don't be so nasty, Miyuki Kazuya!" – but Miyuki has to bite back a laugh at the new reactions from the handful of teammates who noticed them. A few roll their eyes at the pair, Kawakami and Haruichi look mildly embarrassed again, and the rest, having spotted his self-satisfied smile, realize that only Miyuki's figured out about the jerseys.

They're trying to contain their mirth, but with not much success.

* * *

Sawamura is pleased that Chris-sempai seems to be in a good mood when it's his turn to catch for him. Miyuki's been switched to practice with Furuya, and Sawamura feels the usual annoyance, but also a bit of relief. The smug asshole had been making one of those superior, I-know-something-you-don't-know smiles through the mask and Sawamura couldn't concentrate for shit. Grins like that usually led to bad things for Sawamura.

Miyuki's acting normal now that he's with Furuya, and the southpaw is torn between being irritated that Miyuki takes Furuya seriously and being fiercely glad that the jerk is comfortable being his true, rotten self around Sawamura.

Sawamura's last throw of morning practice is an a_ma_zing cutter and he turns to loudly remind Miyuki about how awesome his pitching is. He opens his mouth and a couple things happen in quick succession: Sawamura sees Miyuki shucking off the catchers gear and his attention fixes on the big #20 on his boyfriend's jersey. He gasps, and Kuramochi and some of the other sempai (apparently waiting for this) start to clutch their sides in laughter. Tetsu immediately orders them to knock it off and clean up, and Chris – not anticipating Sawamura's distraction – throws back the baseball they'd been practicing with.

So as Sawamura is hit with the realization that the whole team knows he's sleeping with Miyuki, he's also hit with a baseball. "GODDAMMIT," he yells as his ribs start to sting. Then he bows deeply to Chris and adds quickly: "That wasn't aimed at you, Chris-sempai! It wasn't your fault, I wasn't paying attention, and I'll do better next time!" Then, he whirls on the grinning bastards. "I'VE BEEN WEARING THIS JERSEY ALL PRACTICE AND NO ONE _TOLD_ ME? REALLY, GUYS? _REALLY?_ YOU TRAITORS!"

"You didn't notice?" Miyuki asks, an attempt at innocence splashing across his face.

"YOU TOO, MIYUKI KAZUYA? HOW COULD YOU? I CAN'T BELIEVE –" he cuts himself off. Wait. Maybe there are some upsides to the blunder which, really, is Miyuki's fault. _He's_ the one who picked up a practice jersey first this morning, so of course Sawamura would assume that the only one left was his! "Huh, I guess this means we can kiss in public now."

Miyuki smacks him on the head with his glove on the way to the dugout, impish smile back where it belongs. "Moron. Making out on the mound isn't going to help your pitching at all. Just stick to baseball on the field, 'kay?"

"Yeah, whatever." Actually, messing around on the mound sounds like a _great_ idea, but it's not an experience Sawamura wants to share with a couple dozen teammates present.

While sitting in first period, Sawmura realizes that Miyuki's going to make fun of him for not figuring out the jersey switch earlier. He should start planning revenge now. Uh. Hmm. He could leave hickeys in places that the uniform won't cover. Make bedroom eyes at him when he's busy doing stretches or trying to concentrate on homework. Sneak some dirty phrases into conversation at inappropriate moments.

Hey, maybe during payback for the teasing today, he'll actually manage to get one over on his boyfriend. Sawamura supposes that hitting the snooze button five times today wasn't such a bad thing after all.

* * *

From Meri: Hope you liked it! This is my first completed Daiya no Ace fic, so let me know what you think about the characterization, dialogue, pacing, etc. I'm still getting a feel for their characters. Please leave a review, even if it's just a line you liked or disliked - every bit of feedback helps my writing!

Thanks to official-todoroki-shouto - I really hope I did the prompt justice :)


End file.
